Social Media for Colorectal Cancer Screening

Colorectal Cancer Clinical Trial

Official title:

Utilizing Social Media for Colorectal Cancer Screening: An Innovative Randomized Controlled Trial

Clinical Trial Details — Status: Not yet recruiting

Administrative data

• NCT number: NCT04296630
• Other study ID #: 20-005
• Status: Not yet recruiting
• Phase: N/A
• Start date: August 1, 2020
• Est. completion date: October 31, 2020

Study information

• Verified date: March 2020
• Source: St. Michael's Hospital, Toronto
• Contact: Nancy N. Baxter, MD, FRCSC, FACS, PhD
• Phone: 416-864-6060
• Email: Nancy.Baxter[@]unityhealth.to
• Is FDA regulated: No
• Study type: Interventional

Clinical Trial Summary

Using social media for health promotion is an innovative and emerging approach but remains relatively unexplored in cancer screening. Uptake of colorectal cancer (CRC) screening remains low and standard methods of reaching out are expensive with limited impact. The objective of this study is to conduct a cluster randomized controlled trial (RCT) to test the effectiveness of social media messages for CRC screening on screening intention (primary outcome). The results of this trial will be of interest to Cancer Care Ontario and are likely to be taken up by other screening programs looking for innovative and novel ways to increase screening participation. The study results will be easily translatable identifying the most compelling CRC screening messages while the approach can easily be translated to other cancer disease sites with screening programs.

Description:

The investigators will conduct a cluster randomized controlled trial (RCT) in Facebook users (aged 50+) in Ontario. Randomization will be done at the level of the forward sortation area (FSA) - the first three characters of the postal code. All FSAs in Ontario will be randomized to one of four study arms - users assigned to each arm will receive one of the social media messages. If users click on the message, a webpage with further information on screening will appear and participants will be asked to indicate intention to get screened for CRC. The primary outcome will be intention to screen and secondary outcomes will include other engagement metrics such as reach, cost-per-click, click-through rates, number of likes, number of impressions, and post comments.

This study will inform the feasibility of using social media for CRC screening and identify the most compelling CRC screening messages for the screen-eligible population.

Recruitment information / eligibility

• Status: Not yet recruiting
• Enrollment: 56000
• Est. completion date: October 31, 2020
• Est. primary completion date: October 31, 2020
• Accepts healthy volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers
• Gender: All
• Age group: 50 Years and older

Eligibility

Inclusion Criteria:

• Facebook users in Ontario who are older than 50 years of age

Related Conditions & MeSH terms

• Cancer Screening
• Colorectal Cancer
• Colorectal Neoplasms

Intervention

Other:
• Social media message #1
Social media message promoting colorectal cancer screening
• Social media message #2
A different social media message promoting colorectal cancer screening
• Social media message #3
A different social media message promoting colorectal cancer screening
• Tailored social media messages
Tailored social media messages promoting colorectal cancer screening.

Locations

Country	Name	City	State
n/a

Sponsors (3)

Lead Sponsor	Collaborator
St. Michael's Hospital, Toronto	Applied Health Research Centre, Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR)

Outcome

Type	Measure	Description	Time frame	Safety issue
Primary	Screening intention	The proportion of individuals in each arm that click on the ad and confirm their intention to get screened for CRC	From date of randomization to end of the study at 3 months
Secondary	Cost-per-click	The average cost per link click calculated as the total amount spent on the ad campaign divided by total number of link clicks	From date of randomization to end of the study at 3 months
Secondary	Click-through-rate	Percentage of times that individuals saw the ads and performed a click	From date of randomization to the end of study at 3 months
Secondary	Number of likes	Total number of Facebook likes for each ad	At the end of the study period at 3 months
Secondary	Number of impressions	Number of times that each ad was on screen	At the end of the study period at 3 months
Secondary	Post comments	Number of comments on each ad	At the end of the study period at 3 months